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90

2404.org PC Gaming

Like I said at the beginning, Elven Legacy is a game totally unconfused about its purpose. It's here to let you shuffle elves and dragons and airships around and blow up orcs with spells, and in that context it succeeds as well as you can expect any game to succeed. If Fantasy Wars, Fantasy General, or any other beer-and-pretzels fantasy hex game has ever appealed to you on any level, Elven Legacy is worth a try.

Like the original, Elven Legacy offers a tough challenge in attractive candy wrappings. It will certainly please the fans of the original and anyone looking for a simple, easy-to-play tactical strategy game without too many statistics to worry about. You owe it to yourself to at least try the game out if you haven't yet played the original!

Elven Legacy is one of those titles that is made for the hardest of the hardcore strategy fan: the depth and the replayability of the game is striking, and you'll find that upgrading your soldiers, trying to unlock bonus levels and exploiting every map can keep you busy for a very long time. However, the time restraints for each mission, the overwhelming numbers that you'll face, and the technical issues will wear most people down, if it doesn't keep them away entirely.

Fact is, Elven Legacy doesn’t push any envelopes or try to add some fancy new twist to the genre. It’s generic in almost every conceivable way. But it still has the ability to get its hooks in you and when it does you’ll end up like me – laughing at the dialogue, cursing the difficulty and fully realizing that it isn’t doing a whole lot different from the many turn based strategy games that have come before it…but you then notice it’s 2 A.M. and you’ve been at it for hours. Is that a testament to Elven Legacy or to the design that it’s borrowed from other games? Does that even matter?

Elven Legacy is a sure bet for fans of the fantasy wargame subgenre, but they're not the only ones who will appreciate its charms. Fans of more traditional wargames can appreciate it as a fun fantasy diversion, and new players will find it simple to learn and enjoy. If you are new to the genre, Elven Legacy is a great choice for an entry-level wargame. With its simple yet tactically robust combat options, its antihero protagonist, and its cutthroat multiplayer, Elven Legacy could easily become your "gateway game" to more sophisticated wargames.

Turn-based strategy fans will enjoy digging into the game's dual campaigns, playing around with individual standalone scenarios, and strategizing in hotseat or online multiplayer matches. The streamlined gameplay lets vets focus on battle strategies and clearing maps with the best possible ratings, while less experienced players can wade through the game without being terribly bogged down by having to micromanage lots of minutia. Elven Legacy is by no means an amazing game, but it's a strong follow-up to Fantasy Wars and not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Now, if you are a fan of turn based strategy gaming then this is the game for you, especially if you were a fan of Fantasy Wars. This is fun and it is even a better game than Fantasy Wars was so fans of Turn Based Strategy games should buy this, but if you are un-sure a game like this is something you will enjoy then wait for the demo or download the demo for Fantasy Wars and see if this type of game appeals to you.

It’s possible that Elven Legacy is a game that you’ll just have to work with. From what I understand, Ino-Co is going to add more campaigns and missions in the future, and so possibly the game will eventually work well and be worthwhile if you stick with it. But in the meantime, I wouldn’t really recommend Elven Legacy unless it receives a bargain bin price and you really like tactical strategy games.

This is a slightly above average strategy title that offers some good strategic gameplay. However, many players won’t stick with it because of the difficulty of finishing the missions from about the middle game onward. I enjoy a challenge as well as the next player, but I don’t enjoy utter failure time and time again. I imagine others would feel the same. This is a game for the super-buff strategy player out there.

While I don’t yet consider myself a dyed-in-the-wool strategy gamer, I feel the games growing on me. Elven Legacy did a good job of pulling me in, which is no small feat, but I must say that if you’re not as far along (or farther) than I am in your acceptance of the genre, then you might want to find something a little more impressive. There are just bigger and more delicious fish out there to fry.

There's a complex and thoughtful game with a lot of heart here - graphics and difficulty issues aside, devoted fans will enjoy tackling the huge campaigns, mastering all three races and even when that's over there's a mission editor for the serious spods among us. I can't see Elven Legacy ever becoming a major hit, but if you think it might be your cup of tea don't overlook it either.

Fans of turn Russian developer 1C's Fantasy Wars title will feel at home here and novice players may be attracted by its simplicity and omission of in-depth resource management, but Elven Legacy does little to break new ground in its genre. Although the quantity of content will keep enthusiasts entertained for hours, it's unlikely to win new followers.

Due to its familiarity and the fact that there are not a vast number of additions to Elven Legacy over the original Fantasy Wars - the only really new things are the Elves and mission choices - I cannot really recommend Elven Legacy to players of Fantasy Wars. However, as a game in its own right, the rich graphics, the suitably easy to pick up gameplay and the well conceived story do combine to result in a decent game. However, problems such as the poor audio, the underachieving multiplayer and the fairly short campaign length, as well as the 'leftovers' from Fantasy Wars, do drag down what is otherwise an enjoyable experience, meaning that Elven Legacy does not reach the dizzying heights of must play status, but is still worth a try and provides a strong foundation to build upon - I just hope that next time around, the structure uses a modified schematic rather than just sporting a fresh coat of paint.

If you’re a hardcore turn-based strategy fan, feel free to disregard this review and seek out the opinion of someone more schooled in the genre. But if, like me, you’re a novice in the genre and have been taken in by Elven Legacy’s promise of a gentle welcome, then keep well away. You’ll only end up getting hurt.

Since this is a PC release, there is a good chance some problems will be remedied, though the game could probably do with a more long-term overhaul. Elven Legacy is mercifully conservative in its design, though it does not seem to be executed as smoothly as it should have been. With more time in development, future releases for the series should turn out to be more entertaining.

The truth is, Elven Legacy has a ready-made audience that will absolutely lap up its particular brand of turn-based, RPG-tinged strategy. For those interested - and they as much as the developers know who they are - it’s nicely constructed, deep and offers almost perverse challenge. The whole notion of a scored review seems a little arbitrary in the face of the niche and dedicated fanbase this game will attract, and its attempts at populist window-dressing are virtually pointless because for the rest of us, the whole entity is at its most lenient completely mystifying, and at its most uncompromising utterly impenetrable.